Darling in the Franxx – 05

For a calm before the storm episode Franxx sure doesn’t let off the gas. From character development to plot-based tidbits we got everything as the show gleaned, teased, and outright flaunted the goods before our very eyes. Third wheeling? Check. Ominous transformations? Have that too. Zorome chewing on phallic shaped foods? As if you’d thought we would forget. Darling, Franxx has it all.

As I’ve been harping on from the start, Franxx will be all about the character interactions of which we got a literal face full of this week. Ichigo and Gorou are the parasites du jour of course, exhibiting not just the emotional challenges we can expect moving forward, but the first solidification of relationships. Ichigo for better or worse has “officially” given up trying to get with Zero Two’s new strap-on chew toy, but as we all know, that’s a lie—this girl is hopelessly in love and cannot even figure out how to describe it. As Gorou has an inkling of interest in Ichigo himself this pain and jealously will become a problem later on once the brown stuff hits the fan (particularly with Hiro) as you can firmly bet one (or more) of these poor kids are going to wind up losers. Zero Two’s now permanent presence upends an already strained situation, and with more than one already showcasing the classic signs of implosion, it won’t be long before we see what happens when teenage emotion meets life and death struggle. I’d start feeling happy for Zorome and Futoshi right now, they’re the only ones even close to winning at this compatibility game.

What makes these character struggles all the more important are the ominous details simultaneously being dropped. We now know for example that this squad of parasites truly are unique both in form and function, possessing completely unique Franxx mechas and starkly differing in person from fellow parasites. This just isn’t some ragtag collection of rear line misfits anymore, these parasites were clearly grouped together and isolated for a purpose. Whether due to Hiro’s abilities specifically or something else is currently unclear, but the fact none know what happens to parasites after they reach adulthood is a big tell: these guys are meant to enthusiastically go out in a blaze of glory in pursuit of the greater good. The snag with that of course is that Zero Two shreds this objective with her sultry presence, turning Hiro from controllable lab rat into a truly unknown factor and preventing the adults in the room from having even the slightest bit of influence over the situation. That “third time is the charm” ride limit and that unsightly cancerous growth? Clearly dangerous given the adults recognize the risk, but thanks to a bit of domed intercourse, an onrushing horde, and best girl shenanigans, few can argue against benching the team’s most valuable asset. Obviously some characters and audience both know what’s going to happen in principle next time of course—enough hints have been dropped left and right—but the results and who it specifically impacts make the wait all the more agonizing. One way or another we are going to get some answers, and someone will more than likely pay the price in the process.

Start placing those bets boys and girls, things (and girls) are about to get wild.

I’m guessing it is in this case, platelets aren’t technically cells so it’s hard imagining they intend on using that as a metaphor here. More likely it relates to whatever component of the klaxosaurs are residing in the parasite bodies.

“Papa” is probably either a ruling title like “King” or some sort of construct that’s been around since the apocalypse with the role of nurturing and guiding the first new humans. Why is he still active then?

After that non-conversation about the parasites not becoming adults, I’m also guessing that this isn’t some rite of passage everyone goes through, but more like the Franxx pilots are grown to die fighting while the “Adult Class” of society lives in the underground city and reproduces the old-fashion way.

So they are actually playing the Hiro might die card…well I thought that will happen since we need more drama…

So Hiro’s reaction was the opposite compare to the others…so instead of decreasing his is increasing…how he will survive though? there are plenty of ways but I’m guessing 02 “kissing” will take some of his excess yellow blood cell or Hiro will become like 02

Hiro is more famous that I thought!! I really curious on why Hiro and his friends are special

And we also got some hint about them not growing up….Maybe that klasxcioasd something is the final product of those pilot though I don’t think that is the case….maybe they will be like those partner of 02….they might be able to ride Franxx 100x before they die

My bets are on Hiro transforming into something unless stopped as Zero Two has effectively removed the limiter on his powers. It works great for her of course, but Hiro doesn’t seem physically designed to cope with being an amplifier of pink haired craziness.

Hiro is more famous that I thought!! I really curious on why Hiro is special

Only Hiro is special.

- he was much more smarter than the other children, taking initiative and handing out names to a bunch of orphans and humanize them.

- He was a boy once known as a prodigy.

- He always got awesome tier results in each training compared to the other parasites, and even among the double-digits, he was a cut above.

- He had been their leader since they were little.

-The ”parents” always had pretty high expectations and expected a lot from him.

- Mitsuru said that ”even among the double-digits, Hiro was a cut above, and above double-digits comes one-digit

- He spends most of his time working out, training hard and practicing attacking moves with a sort of lacrosse stick in a training bot

- He knew exactly what Ichigo was going to do in the last battle, not to mention that he discovered the location of the klaxosaur’s core too.

Remember that if one wing is flying at a faster rhythm than the other, that bird be crashing.

and his friends

Hiro’s friends, Jesus fucking Christ, they’re literally useless and awful as shit and, besides, they just do nothing improve the situation. They don’t even bother to train and they also spend his time talking shit about Hiro and doing futile things.

Yeah Ichigo is fine for the moment, she’s too useful as a tool for getting someone else killed. All we need is her to go into Hiro-induced rejection shock once again while some poor sucker is being ganged up on by some klaxosaurs lol.

in the episode 3, Mitsuru said that ”even among the double-digits, Hiro was a cut above, and above double-digits comes one-digit, And as we saw him spends most of his time working out, training hard, and practicing attacking moves with a bat in a training bot. He was a highly skilled pilot and was seen as a prodigy child.

We see the P13 kids mostly just talk among themselves, no internet or smartphones.
But they are special, so perhaps in other Plantations its more “normal”?
Or are children explicitly told about Hiro?
Or is there a leaderboard? But the P13 kids seem surprised that Hiro is well known.

Looks like the P13 kids have the special locked out treatment from the very beginning?
Or they have their brains wiped at one time?

She’s like House. It’s not like she’s a cunt on purpose – it’s because she already knew the truth about everything. There are a lot of hints that she is far more aware of the state of the world than meets the eye.

She’s jaded as all hell, which I can understand since she’s gone through life knowing she’s a death sentence to anyone she gets close to. We’ll probably see flashbacks of a much more human Zero-Two later where she was always hoping/begging/praying that her next partner would be different and not leave her after just three fights. Then she snapped and stopped giving a shit because she learned something she shouldn’t have and caring now hurts too much.

I wouldn’t go as far as saying she cares about Hiro’s well-being yet, but she probably really wants Hiro to live. She’s also just ready to accept it when he dies because she’s seen it all a hundred times before. I mean, it’s not likely that she is what she is with the horns and the killing because she chose it.

She is like that because she is hybrid of human and klaxosaur. Her belief of “rules of nature” comes from her klaxosaur blood, and her desire to be acknowledged as human comes from her human blood. There is possibility that ego comes from her klaxosaur blood, or maybe because she always gets what she wants, except freedom. That last statement may seems contradictory, but basically she gets better treatment than most parasites, but she is still parasite, she still must pilots franxx.

Indeed. Ichigo is such a great character because of her compassion and the problems she struggle with. She is trying the best she can but events are spiraling out of her control. She feels like she is failing both personally and as a team leader and she has no answers to 02 coming inn and changing all the rules.

I don’t think so, they made similar mistakes last episode. There they send out the franxxs without proper reconnaissance. Don’t forget they have hardly any other defence. If they lose the franxxs they will likely lose the whole plantation.

I still don’t feel we know enough about this world and its rulers to be sure of that. Right now, we don’t know how much we don’t know. We don’t know exactly how the plantations relate to the world as a whole, and I don’t think we even have a clue about how many people there are living inside each plantation. I suppose we could reckon that because plantation numbers are 2 digits that there are less than 100 of them, but even that is an assumption. So clearly their sheer size must make these things important, but the exact strategic importance to humanity of a single one (or even a pair) is unclear right now.

Honestly? From the way we’ve seen this episode how Plantation 13′s squad is different from the others?

I think Dr. Franxx hand picked Hiro precisely because of his fame being a “prodigy children” as it were, it’s also probably why Hiro was given special permission to stay on even when he failed as a parasite.

Dr. Franxx wants Hiro to keep doing his thing, what his end goal is I have no clue, but it probably ties into why the Franxx for squad 13 are all individualized.

This is also probably why China grabbed the first excuse they could to ban the series in their country.

They may have no choice. The kissing for example transfers magma energy between plantations, not unreasonable thinking this must be done at set times to ensure each plantation has enough to keep on going. Also the potential there’s simply not enough parasites to go around and protect everything. A lot of the time you have to make do with what you have at the moment.

It feels less like Zero Two is causing trouble (besides the blue cancer) and more that thanks to her presence all the hidden issues within the group comes to the surface. Take Mitsuru and Ikuno for example. Mitsuru probably cares less about 02 and more that he can’t surpass Hiro and that he is incompatible with his partner. Both things didn’t suddenly happen. Mitsuru is pretty distraught that his former idol fell from grace and there had always been compatibility issues between him and Ikuno. And there is not much they can do about it, since it seems less an issue of communication or personalities, but rather incompatible sexuality.

Well, I for one welcome that, since the analogy about the myth of that wingless bird and that you have to connect with the opposite gender to fully live has a strong anti gay-message.

OK, so the two one-winged (not wingless) birds need to join together to live, but having done so they are then counted as female, and according to legend they must mate with a dragon in order to reproduce. So we have the male stamens joining with the female pistils in the FranXX, but it couldn’t be clearer even without the “XX” in the name that these things are female. Now we need some dragons for them to mate with – seen any around lately, maybe? (Hint: in Japanese, the klaxosaurs are 恐竜 which, although meaning “dinosaur”, is a compound of “fearsome” and “dragon”)

Hiro is the first person to have the opposite reaction to her. Which would imply she hasn’t given anyone else tumors yet.

And what fucked up the other stamens that rode with 02 was a mental invasion after Stamen is completely exhausted.
The problem with zero two is that she is a half-klaxosaurs and has superhuman strength, when 02 releases her superhuman strength for the system of internal controls, she automatically force the physical, mental and piloting skills of the Stamen in order to be able to control the Mech, and when Stamen can’t stand it any longer, 02 simply invades his mind and takes control of the Stamen’s body to move the Mech.

It is folklore so hard to tell intent. Gay’s cannot reproduce but a story about reproduction is not an anti-gay message. Pair skating is not anti-gay it the combination of the lighter female body type with the bigger male body type who the skaters date off the ice can be the same sex. Being Gay is who you love not who you have to fly with or reproduce with. Sexuality is clearly represented in this story as the juvenile adults of the story are not informed of romance and so far clearly actual sex or relationships gay or straight are frowned on. There is a sex must work together theme going, but that work together and in society, the sexes do have to work together. If romance was actually allowed I would assume it would break down to some pairs being romantic, but like in pair skating other pairs would be work only and their lover being of either sex.

I love the way this show is using the widescreen at select moments, it helps emphasize the background (especially the “underground” city) or certain characters by making them feel “larger” than life at that moment. Quite creative screenplay for something like this.

Zero two looks to be someone who has been looking for her other half so she can break out of this world.The way she is made perfect sense to me since she seems to know about the truth of the code name kids.

If they were all raised just to fight until they die for the “adults” (guessing from the hints in this ep that these kids don’t get to become “adults”), it would really make you question what is “being human”.

She did not suddenly just have a thing for Hiro cause hes the MC, but saw potential in him from their first ride or when they met that he may be the one who could survive riding with her and become her partner in order to leave this cruel place if not destroying everything. If Hiro could not survive riding with her, he will end up dead anyways so it makes no difference.

It really looked to me as if she saw the bigger picture so the only thing that matter mattered to her is to find the one that could be her partner. She’s jaded cause she knows the fate of the kids.

I know Zero Two´s behavior is a product of how she has been used as a weapon and hated by everyone despite of the results and her alien blood but this time she went a little too far for my taste, more than in love with Hiro she seems to be using him to fight at full power and that´s it, at this point Ichigo is the only one that sheows clear signs to truly love Hiro and I hope that poor girl can save Hiro from himself; this is 24 episode anime after all, I doubt our hero is going to drop dead at the sixth episode!.

Yeah she definitely doesn’t like Hiro as Hiro right now, it’s rather what he can do that’s made Zero Two interested. Wouldn’t be the first time though, plenty of proper relationships get their start from such irksome circumstances. Guaranteed things will change later on, need to keep that love triangle going somehow :P

- Interesting side note – the plantation leaders has a red sash(?) indicating the plantation they’re from… (also, it’s the plantation 26′s leader that did a speech – also, using ‘p’ instead of ‘plantation’ cause lazy.
- Are we really going to jump into the notion that the p26 FranXX team are more composed because their emotions are more suppressed than p13′s (test) team?
- At least Zorome’s complex got calmed down somewhat when Hiro humbled himself still being himself. (heh)
- Hiro really doesn’t like his ‘sibilings’ to worry about him (a fact that Goro pointed out in the end)
- A rather interesting reaction from Ikumo and Miku when Kokoro invited Futoshi to the girls table (after a certain someone hijacked his seat). And Zorome’s the one showing us how more harem MC should be feeling.
- The prayer to ‘papa’ was all sorts of oddity… got a slight suspicion p13 FranXX team are the only ones doing this. Also freeze frame bonus right after the prayer.
- Zero Two was probably isolated from other teams other than during battles, and probably the reason she never emphasized with other parasites (and angering p26 FranXX team leader)
- Mitsuru is already having similar symptoms as Hiro after only riding with Zero Two once (and tries to hide it) and yet he’s having a lack of yellow blood cells?
- Side note – p26 FranXX team didn’t notice Strelizia was in the hanger with the shutter over it. Making sure the confrontation to happen in the strategy meetining rather than in the hanger or somewhere more odd…
- Ichigo and Zero Two sees Hiro differently (a irreplaceable family vs another fling)
- Did Zero Two calmed down upon seeing the (artificial) rain?
- Goro had the same hand pose after feeling Hiro’s neck and way at the end where he tried to comfort Ichigo…though I do wonder if he and Ichigo both care Hiro as much as they do each other…
- Welp, Zero Two knows the ‘infection’ that she’s causing to the stamens she rides with…

I’m surprised no one has mentioned the whole red oni/blue oni thing. It’s a common trope in anime. I think Hiro himself may be an Oni (albet the blue one to 02′s red) Big stretch, but i’m excited to see how this series will turn out.

I’m not surprised that one episode of darling in the franxx that seemed to an exercise in visual and narrative subtlety (at least when compared to the episodes that came before it) was handled by an ex-kyo ani veteran. Yea this was easily my favorite ep of the series. Don’t know if that necessarily means this series will turn out to be promising going into future eps (I’ve been mildly disappointed so far) but I am hopeful it can make a believer of its conceit before the end of the first cour. Ichigo is easily the best character in this series and the one who reflects the hidden strengths of the series’ writing; I wish this competency could stretch out to everything else in this show

Seems like they’re playing hard into the pairs need a mutual balance of personalities to be truly compatible. The irregulars are paired with similar personalities, and the normal kids are all mostly baseline emotionless. The whole yellow blood cells is just a metaphor for their relationships and how they share things. Zero Two basically consumes you in the relationship, or in Hiro’s case, gives too much affection.

In the upcoming episodes I’m guessing he’ll man up and force his will on her (probably to save his friends) and stabilize their relationship (and his body) in the process.

Still wondering what happens to the kids, and what the “plants” that get sent out in are really doing. It’s obvious that those other than the irregulars know what fate has in store for them, and it’s not growing up.

Enjoying the mystery and the very dysfunctional society. How many people are even in those cities on the inside when no one is on the streets and it already is shown that some attending may be holograms. Interesting that only the young full adults working with the Juveniles have not covered faces.
The pairing of male and female and role in the robots might be considered sexist with the male dominate to some in how it looks. But I was just thinking that idea might be the mistaken one role is superior in a dance couple idea. The comparison of who was the better dancer, Fred Astaire or Ginger Rodgers? Closer to that sexist time most probably thought Fred Astaire. But more recently it was pointed out that Ginger Rogers was doing everything Fred Astaire was doing except backward and in high heels. (I know many might have to look up a few videos it is worth it)
Here the male acts as the robots wide area observer and points the robot at what to act on but the female is the robot and can talk for the robot, work strategy for the robot and make all the fine tactical choices in how to move and fight. The robots are fighting females. And we have seen the team leader can be female. I think like many there is no superior sex in pairs skating or competitive dancing and there might not actually be one in this story.

The Stamen is the pilot which is in control over the robot. Strelizia’s jumps are a good example, Hiro decides where and when, 02 distributes the power, and makes sure things work as they should. That’s the reason why it’s important for pilot to be compatible.

It’s interesting that outside of being inside the franXX boys and girls are separated. Like the breakfast scene when Zerome said that a girl (002) couldn’t sit at the boys table and a boy (futoshi) couldn’t sit at the girls table, and also freaking out when 002 was in the boys dorms. It’s like the adults want them to be partners but are opposed to them being couples. I remember in Shink Sekai Yori ( I think that’s what it’s called) the adults heavily recommend same-sex pairings during puberty so teens could act on their sexual urges without there being a risk of unplanned pregnancy. Whereas FranXX, despite the sexual innuendo shoved in your face, doesn’t want the teens to actually feel natural sexual impulse while putting them in a situation where intimacy is the key to their pairs, and that will inevitably cause problems in a big way.

Lots of hate for 002 this time around, but what does people expect? She’s been made a tool, but unlike the other kids, she is self-aware of the situation that she’s in and resents it (not brainwashed). And all the partners she rides with die so she has learned not to form any real attachments even in the most intimate situations.

I’d say she’s doing pretty good to only be as cynical and fucked up as she is. I don’t think Hiro will die. I think he will be “corrupted” by his partnership with 002 and transform. I don’t know what exactly this is an analogy for. Getting your vanilla boyfriend into your kink? Just kidding, but kinda not.

Because I can see exactly where they’re going with her character. We’re supposed to excuse her behavior because Zero Two is just a broken girl suffering from five types of schizophrenia because of her dark sordid evil science past. She’s going to act like a complete crazy bastard, completely off her rocker for the entire show using her sob story as a shield. Its boring and irritating.

No empathy in that statement. If the character is not the type you like fine, that is often like food preference no one is wrong or right. And there is often nothing interesting in a well-adjusted character to write a story arc around. So with both broken and well-adjusted boring, there is nothing left.
We will see if Zero-2 character changes or not later to see if your destain is earned or not.
But there is no automatic right action program in peoples brains, one must accept that broken people are not at fault for being broken by someone else. One can only judge on if they can improve once better inputs are available.
Have to agree on some who not only excuse but enjoy without question wrong behavior can bug. But as long as one confines it to fiction enjoying the actions of evil is not wrong as long as the person seems to understand that is wrong in real life.

- When the pisti is piloting the franxx alone, the robot interface isn’t actived and the pistil’s body works normally.

- Hiro was really piloting Strelizia in episode 1, and He fainted getting unconscious after Strelizia gave the finishing blow, once the robot interface is active and 02 speaks via the robot interface confirming connection between stamen and pistil was active.

* There are people that actually thought Hiro wasn’t piloting in the first episode
* All based off of pure speculation by two jealous kids that didn’t want to admit he piloted before them or was better than them and were reaching for any other answer
*After the pistil he piloted with said he did it and that he was incredible
Holy shit, how retarded do you have to be?

-meets her dahling in a swamp
-has many layers, just like an onion
-never showers, probably smells bad
-no table manners
-is an oni which is basically an ogre
-dahling turns into an ogre himself through some nebulous magic bullshit and they dump fat ogre loads into eachother
is 002 shrek?????